Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Gaza School Attack; Netanyahu Addresses Israeli Cabinet; Russia Scorns Sanctions; Ukrainian Army Declares Ceasefire

Aired July 31, 2014 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news this morning, the fighting intensifies in Gaza. Israel accused this morning of war crimes as it adds 16,000 additional soldiers to the conflict. Hamas vows not to back down.

We have new shocking pictures to show you and new words from the Israeli prime minister, live on the ground in Gaza and Jerusalem with the latest.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning in Ukraine. The country's military announcing a ceasefire at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Investigators desperate to recover bodies of victims at the scene. This is as Russia shrugs off sanctions for arming rebels in Ukraine.

Live team coverage ahead.

Welcome back this morning to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. Good to see you this morning. It's 30 minutes past the hour.

The conflict in Gaza grows bloodier by the hour. We do have some pictures to show you. We warn you they are disturbing.

Israeli war planes hitting a crowded marketplace in eastern Gaza City, killing 17 Palestinians, wounding 200 others. This came after a deadly blast at a U.N. school left 16 Palestinians dead.

Israel, meanwhile, announcing it is calling up 16,000 more reservists insisting that Hamas bears responsibility for the bloodshed at the school. The United Nations secretary-general, though, puts the blame squarely on the Israelis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BAN KI-MOON, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: All available evidence points to Israeli artillery as the cause. Nothing is more shameful than attacking sleeping children.

MARK REGEV, ISRAEL SPOKESMAN: We know for a fact that Hamas terrorists were using the vicinity at the school as a shield to shoot at our forces. SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The area, though, but not the school

itself.

REGEV: If you are standing by the front gate and shooting and you don't want to be shot back because there's a school behind you, it's the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: A little more than an hour ago, the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas fired off a letter to the United Nations secretary-general saying, quote, "Israel's systematic and deliberate attack on civilian homes as well as United Nations schools sheltering civilians and hospitals constitute war crimes." He says, "I have declared the Gaza Strip a disaster area."

Karl Penhaul joins us live from Gaza this morning.

Karl, give us a sense of the latest on the ground.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, when you look at those pictures we've been seeing, it's hard to imagine how things could get much worse. But they are getting worse. This morning, again, and I'm hearing it right now, heavy artillery pounding away at positions in northern Gaza, in the area where that school was hit yesterday. I'm seeing the artillery pounding the east and the south as well.

Early this morning, again, some kind of artillery round landing near another United Nations school, what was being used as a shelter. This time, injuries but no fatalities from inside the building from what we're hearing.

But yesterday I got the chance to talk to the commissioner general of the United Nations relief agency. That's the organization that's setting up those shelters and trying to care now for more than 200,000 Palestinians who have had to flee their homes because around them it became a battlefield. And he is saying that that U.N. operation is now almost a breaking point.

If they continue to receive thousands more displaced people, they will have to throw their hands up in the air and simply hand over the responsibility to the invading Israeli military, as they say, because under international law, as the Israeli military comes in, it would have to assume some of the responsibilities for caring and protecting the civilian that are there in its path.

But certainly no sign of a let up even yesterday to try to get a four- hour humanitarian pause, a mini-truce, if you like, so emergency workers could go in and pull out the dead and the dying. Even that failed. It just shows how tricky it is to get any agreement, a deep lack of confidence on both sides. Neither side wants to give up any momentum on the battlefield. Neither side wants to give up any slight advantage that they perceive that they have on -- in the combat zone right now -- John.

BERMAN: Karl, quickly, any explosions? Do you see any rockets out of Gaza this morning and any Israeli bombardment into Gaza?

PENHAUL: We have seen rockets going out this morning. We saw those about half an hour ago. Now, by my estimation, across in eastern Gaza, incredible to think that despite the heavy pounding that that area has received, that rockets are still going out. I believe that they were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome system. And right now in terms of pounding, there is a lot of pounding going on across in eastern Gaza and remember, this pounding is coming from artillery pieces, from Howitzer field guns that can send a highly explosive charge that weighs about 100 pounds.

Those field guns can send that explosive charge the entire length of Gaza. And these are not designed as precision weapons. They are what they called an area weapon. And that is why we're seeing a lot of civilian casualties as well -- John.

BERMAN: Not precision at all.

Karl Penhaul for us in Gaza this morning, thanks so much.

ROMANS: The White House clearly growing more frustrated by Israel's operation in Gaza condemning the shelling of that U.N. school, but not directly placing the blame on Israel.

In a carefully worded statement, the Obama administration made sure to also condemned those responsible for hiding weapons in U.N. facilities.

Officials in Jerusalem reacting now to a diplomatic backlash calling decisions by Peru, Chile and El Salvador to pull their ambassadors out of Tel Aviv, quote, "a deep disappointment."

Israel does appear to be getting backing from an unlikely source, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, all distancing themselves from Hamas.

I want to go live now to Jerusalem and bring in our Saima Mohsin.

Saima, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, he just told his cabinet moments ago he will, quote, "not agree to any ceasefire that does not allow the IDF to neutralize Hamas' tunnels,."

Benjamin Netanyahu moving forward here.

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Absolutely. Powerful words in this televised cabinet meeting this morning, Christine. We're seeing more and more of these televised cabinet meetings. Usually weekly, more since the operation started. And what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said is that the idea continues to operate with full power in Gaza. And that, of course, means that they are adding more troops this morning. 16,000 reservists added to the Israeli Defense Force, taking the total number up to 86,000 in Operation Protective Edge.

He talked about trying to neutralize the Hamas tunnels. And, Christine, as you mentioned, though, what he said was that they will continue to do this with or without a ceasefire, which basically renders that a notion of a ceasefire, which technically is really a pause in fighting, meaningless because what he's saying is they will carry on regardless of any calls for that.

And what he also said was that this is just the first phase in the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. So clearly more to come, no less. As Karl was just telling us, certainly from his viewpoint in Gaza and certainly from here in Jerusalem, from what the Israeli prime minister has said this morning, that he's determined to continue with Operation Protective Edge.

Calls, though, as you mentioned, from the White House for Israel to do more -- as the deputy press secretary said from the White House to do more, to limit -- sorry, to hold true to its own standards to limit civilian casualties. The United Nations saying that at least 70 percent to 80 percent of those killed are civilians, 1,361 people killed, 315 of which as of midnight last night -- of course we are 11 hours also on from that now -- killed in Gaza. Fifty-six Israeli soldiers and three civilians on this side of the wall as well here in Israel killed in this conflict so far.

A lot of international condemnation of the number of civilian casualties. A lot of concern. And of course it sounds like there's more to come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just said -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Saima Mohsin for us this morning in Jerusalem. Thank you, Saima.

BERMAN: We have more breaking news, this time out of Ukraine. Ukrainian military just declaring a one-day ceasefire near the wreckage of Flight 17. The ceasefire starts today. It comes as international investigators and now a team from Russia are trying to reach the crash site.

A CNN crew was able to get to the wreckage on Wednesday. They did find human remains and passengers personal belongings still scattered across the debris field.

Our Nick Paton Walsh was there. He's tracking the latest developments for us live from Donetsk, in Ukraine, this morning.

First, Nick, quickly, give me a sense of what this ceasefire means.

I think we may have lost Nick Paton Walsh for us in Donetsk. We'll get back to him as soon as we can.

ROMANS: All right, you know, at the same time an independent survey of Russian citizens asked who shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and guess what? The overwhelming majority of Russians believe it was Ukraine. Eighty-two percent of Russians believe the passenger jet was either taken out by a Ukrainian missile or a Ukrainian military plane.

Meanwhile, the Russian government not showing -- showing nothing but disdain really for expanded new economic sanctions imposed by the West. And get this, the Russian stock market and its currency yesterday actually rallied. Investors relieved those sanctions didn't target Russia's critical gas industry.

Want to bring in Nic Robertson, he's monitoring developments live from Moscow.

You know, and it's interesting because the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, have sort of scoffed at these sanctions and you talk to companies and privately they say, well, we're a little bit worried, but publicly, they say we can take it.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That may be what is giving the stock market here some confidence. You know, the sort of rhetoric that we're hearing is really bellicose. We've heard from one senior Russian politician whose accused President Obama with these sanctions of a essentially restart in the cold war. The political message from the Foreign Ministry is that both Washington and the United States, European Union will also suffer economically and perhaps more so than Russia because of the sanctions.

Russia continues to say they have misplaced, misguided, illegitimate sanctions. And that's the narrative that a lot of Russian people, a lot of Russians are hearing. President Putin really dominates the media here. There isn't an independent media. But certainly, this view that it was Ukrainians who are responsible for bringing down MH- 17, maybe the Russians will feeling that their investigation team that has gone to Ukraine that hopes to get to the crash site today is going to present that kind of evidence.

Certainly, that will be the political view from here. Because they say that they have evidence and everything that they have they're going to the -- head at the International Investigation. We don't know the details of what they have. But this is -- this appears to be the sort of information that they plan to present. This is the -- this is the big view for Russia here, if you will -- Christine.

ROMANS: We can say, on the sanctions at least, you know, they are meant to be -- it takes a long time for the sanctions to sort of build up and build up and build up, and then ultimately works. The optimism we're hearing now from markets and from companies, you know, the longer that goes on, Nic Robertson, the less optimism we're likely to have.

Thanks, Nic.

BERMAN: We want to get now to our breaking news on this subject. Right now the Ukrainian military, as we said, just declaring a one-day ceasefire near the wreckage of Flight 17.

Nick Paton Walsh has been to this site.

Nick, first let's start with the breaking news on the ceasefire. What does the mean?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's a game a bit by the Ukrainian government to look like those actively pursuing access for the investigation to the site, they are declaring an area around it. We'll have a 24-hour cessation in their hostilities. They are moving, advancing to try and take that area in its entirety. But I have to say on the same breath, they accuse separatists of not adhering to any kind of ceasefire, firing grad rockets.

So a very volatile situation. They are two sides, of course, who didn't trust each other in this brutal civil war. And that's where the international inspectors find their biggest problem. They're worried, of course, that one side will shoot them and try and blame the other. That's the biggest concern.

The monitors, the OSCE, who've been monitoring the conflict but also trying to help with Dutch and Australian police get to the crash site to do that forensic work. They have set off this morning in a bit to try and get to that site again to establish a route. They said they have perhaps some Dutch and Australian police with them. The spokesperson has been reporting good progress on his Twitter account but also some of the journalists who appear to be following them saying there's a lot of violence in that area, too.

So it's a very volatile problem, John. The fact that we're able to get there for a couple of hours yesterday doesn't mean that these inspectors with their large convoy, will the scrutiny and publicity that it faces when it moves can set up there for hours or weeks and do their job. It's a massive crash site. There are militants there certainly, allowing us access. Not in particularly large numbers themselves but a great, difficult job for those inspectors -- John.

BERMAN: Nick Paton Walsh, live for us in Donetsk this morning.

We'll have to see if this one-day ceasefire holds or has any impact on the investigators' ability to do their work. Our thanks to Nick.

ROMANS: The airports on high alert this morning as the Ebola outbreak spreads. This morning, the Peace Corps is evacuating areas hardest hit. And more Americans have come in contact with Ebola. The latest, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Forty-seven minutes past the hour. The latest now on the Ebola crisis in West Africa. The Peace Corps pulling hundreds of volunteers out of the region. Three hundred forty Peace Corps members leaving Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. This as two Peace Corps volunteers are placed in isolation after having contact with a person who later died of the virus.

Meantime, we're hearing from the son of an American woman infected with the Ebola. Nancy Writebol contracted the disease while helping as a missionary in Liberia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY WRITEBOL, MOTHER CONTRACTED EBOLA: Dad's visits with mom right now are through a window at the home where mom is isolated. And he's in a containment suit even there. The Ebola virus, in terms of mortality rate, right now is about 64 percent. And so that's good news for us. We feel like that's -- mom has a chance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Mom has a chance. We wish her well.

The virus has killed more than 670 people and sickened hundreds more.

BERMAN: House Republicans moving ahead with plans to take President Obama to court. Voting to approve a lawsuit that accuses the president of overstepping his constitutional authority by circumventing Congress with executive action and inactions specifically how he chose to enforce or not enforce the health care law. The president calls the suit a political stunt. He says he's still willing to work with Republicans even if they don't like him.

ROMANS: All right. A busy Costco parking lot. The scene of a crash landing. What happened here? We've got that for you right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: An investigation under way this morning after a small plane crash in a San Diego shopping center killed an 80-year-old passenger. The pilot recovering this morning in an area hospital. Witnesses say the plane bounced while landing at a nearby field, then clipped the top of a Target store before crashing into the parking lot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VINCE CARTER, WITNESS: We were taking off about the same time she was on a different runway and we heard her say she was having issues with her power, and then a few seconds later, she said she was going down. And then we saw -- we saw the smoke right afterwards. So I mean, we saw -- we saw her taking off. For the time, we saw her airborne until we saw the smoke could have only been about 15 seconds or so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Terrifying. No one on the ground thankfully was injured.

BERMAN: Big new information about a huge water main break in Los Angeles. UCLA saying the city's Department of Water and Power, they should be the ones to foot the bill here for the cleanup. Seven hundred cars stranded in flooded garages. They will not be moved until later today, that's at the earliest. The water loss posted 20 million gallons.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COUNCILMAN PAUL KORETZ, LOS ANGELES: We are wet. I mean, UCLA is very wet. And -- but fortunately, you know, for us at least, the flood is over. And we're just restoring functions. So we're busy pumping out our two-parking garages. They got inundated. The Pauley floor, which many people all over the world have written to me about, is drying out and let's hope that we'll be able to repair that or replace it quickly. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: City officials say it is too soon to determine whether a water rate hike to cover the cost of this flooding, which you're looking at right now -- stunning.

ROMANS: Wow.

BERMAN: If a water rate hike will needed to pay for it.

ROMANS: Yes, we asked you to tweet us and let us know if you can save any of those cars in there, the answer is no.

BERMAN: The answer is no. If the car's soaked, you're in pretty big trouble.

ROMANS: They're going to just zero that out.

All right. Argentina sinking into default, sending jitters to the global markets. How will this affect the U.S. and your 401(k)? I'm going to tell you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right. Let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. Stocks falling around the globe. Asian stocks closed mixed, but look, European stocks have turned lower. And Dow futures are down here.

We're watching Adidas shares. They're down about 15 percent in Europe right now. It says it won't earn as much money because of risks in the Russian market. It's going to have to, you know, not open some new stores, maybe close some other stores. So watching the Russia effect there.

And I guess it could be kind of a rough day for stocks in what's been an otherwise pretty good month. This is the last day of July, by the way. The Dow and the S&P are up half a percent for the month, the Nasdaq is up more than 1 percent.

The other big story this morning. Argentina is in default. Last- minute talks failed to produce a deal with the country's bond holders demanding payment.

Now Argentina has defaulted for the second time in 13 years. The change in the credit rating will raise borrowing costs and put pressure on Argentina's struggling economy. Not to worry about the markets, though. Investors saw this coming. Stocks in Argentina actually up ahead of the news.

So this is -- you're right -- a big fight between a hedge fund, the bondholders and the country. And they went past the deadline.

BERMAN: Yes. Go to CNN.com and read more about it, because again --

ROMANS: It's really -- BERMAN: The hedge fund versus a country and the hedge fund is

winning, which is fascinating.

ROMANS: Really interesting.

BERMAN: That is all for us today. "NEW DAY" starts right now.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news. Another shelling near a U.N. school. Israel accused of hitting a different school yesterday and new stunning video from a Gaza marketplace as it is hit. Our Wolf Blitzer live in Israel.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Also breaking, a ceasefire near the crash site of MH-17. Investigators finally set to reach the scene. Our own CNN reporter made it there first, though. You're going to see what's happening at the site now.

CUOMO: Outbreak fears. The Peace Corps pulling out of three African nations as two of its members are quarantined after possible Ebola exposure. We talk live to the son of the American missionary now fighting for her life.

Your NEW DAY starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira.